With Jorge at the temple!

Sis. Jones and I

Rocking the new missionary attire!

Doing service!

Love this temple!

Loving Being in Mexico!

Sis. Jones (my new compa), Sis. Wolferts and me!

Back with the team!!

Our wonderful investigator who was baptized and received the priesthood today!

Friday phone call, Monday in Mexico!

Arrivederci Boston!

Can you Spot the Missionary?  Logan Airport, Monday morning! Answer at the bottom of the page.



Friday morning we got a phone call that Lydia could leave Monday morning for Mexico.  We were in Maine, she was in Worcester.  Her doctor (the amazing Steve Barr) had talked with the church doctors and told them that in all his 20plus years of practice he had never seen such great healing.  He convinced them that she was good to go, and didn't even need the second cast he had anticipated.  It has been so wonderful to have Lydia pass through our home a few times as she has been here and to see her great love and dedication to the mission as she worked in the wonderful Boston Massachusetts Mission!!  She loved her presidents and her companions and had some very important experiences while she served here.

Here are some pictures of her with her mission family and her eternal family. :)

Sis. Jensen, Sis. Buck, Elizabeth, Lydia, the MILLERS!

Saying good-bye to Pres. Miller

Good-bye to Sis. Jensen and Sis. Miller

Good-bye to Sis. Buck

Dad's favorite missionary in all the world!

Sisters and FUTURE sisters (Abigail was in Maine, Elizabeth?)

Mom & Lydia

Hyrum is planning to be taller than Lydia soon.

See you in January, bro!

HERE SHE IS!!

Sis. Lambert is BACK IN MEXICO!

Hurray!  I'm back!!  Dr. Barr don't look at this picture!

In the combi going to my new area!

Sorry I didn't write last week but we didn't really have time. But last week was fantastic! this week ... not so much. This week Hna Wong got sick so we basically spent the whole week at Prez's house watching the Olympics and running around to doctors. at least it felt that way. 

This area is so awesome! It is just so easy to work here I can't really explain it but the spirit is just so strong in preparing people before we even get there, and then guiding us to them. and it is not just 1 or 2 but lots!!

The first week I got here we invited 3 people to baptism and put dates/goals with them. Plus someone Wong was previously teaching got baptized my first Saturday there. It was a sweet old lady who was SO HAPPY to be baptized it was amazing.

Then Sunday. Wow! Sunday may have been one of the happiest days of my life. I just couldn't contain how happy I was when EVERY SINGLE ONE of our investigators that we had visited, and even some we hadn't, came to church and had good experiences.

Here are the baptism plans right now. Only Alejandra and Armando were taught somewhat before I got here. 

Alejandra 27 de Agosto (if she gets married)

Armando y Jorge 10 de septiembre 

Anayeli y Anali 17 de Septiembre

Alicia 14 de Octubre

Plus Anayeli has a 10 year old boy who we can most likely set a date with. Plus we found some really promising nuevos [investigators] and I am excited to work with them as well!

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[Ed. note:  This is a picture and short letter from a sister Lydia taught before she left for her operation.  This sister was baptized while Lydia was stateside.]

 "I hope you are doing well since your operation.  I want to share with you that I was baptized.  You and Sis. Jones were a great help as I took this decision.  After hearing your testimony, I read the Book of Mormon.  Since then, my life began to have meaning.  Thank you Sister Lambert.  May God bless you."

Espero se encuentre bien,despues de su operación. Le quiero compartir;que me bautise.Usted y la hermana Jones fueron de gran ayuda,para tomar esta desición.Despues de su testimonio.Leí el Libro de mormón.Y  desde entonces mi vida comenzo a tener sentido.Gracias hermana Lambert.Dios la bendiga.

Woostah!

[Editor's note:  Lydia is currently serving a mini-mission in Worcester, while her arm heals from surgery.  She had a bone graft and pins, took a small mini-vacation to our family reunion in Utah and travelled back across the country by Amtrak to get her arm re-cast and plunge back into mission work.  We loved having her with us!]

The lady in red is Maria, the one in pink flowers is her sister Justina, the guy with long hair is her son Joseph, the guy with the beard is a recent convert from Cuba that is going to the temple in a few weeks. He grew that beard because he loves Brigham Young and wanted to be just like him.

Missionary work is so different here and I feel like I am finally getting the hang of it. We have meet some intensely awesome people here. First I want to talk about Francis. Francis is Polish. she came here 8 years ago. The plan was to stay for 3 months and visit a friend but she has never gone back. She has 3 sons, 1 daughter, and 5 grand kids 3 of which she has never met. She works cleaning the house of one of the less active members of the ward. 4 months ago when Sis Jensen first meet her she spoke literally no English. Her downstairs neighbor would sometimes help her translate but that was it. So Sis Jensen started teaching her English. When I showed up she had learned enough that she could somewhat communicate and with us.  She started to read the children's BoM in English. She loves it! she has been learning so much and last time when we showed up for class she had a questioned prepared and she asked "how is your bible different than my bible? " we were then (with the help of a computer and google translate) able to explain the Book of Mormon and bear our testimonies. She is the sweetest old lady I have ever meet. Every time we go over she makes us a delicious desert and we can just tell she is so happy to see us. Last class we also helped her find a polish Book of Mormon online through lds.org and she saved it on her favorites list! We will check in in a few days and see if she has read it :)

Then there is Eme. A few transfers ago Sis Jensen and her comp were really struggling in the area because the basically didn't have investigators so they decided to pray and as guided by the spirit write down specific attributes at the investigator they needed to find and baptize would have. Sis Jensen thought of a young, beautiful Dominican with great hair. And her comp thought of a short over weight Puerto Rican lady. So both pretty different but they kept looking for these people and nothing really happened until Hna Jensen's comp left and a week or 2 before I got here, Hna Buck and Hna Jensen contacted Eme, a young beautiful Dominican with great hair. Hna Jensen says when she saw her face she KNEW it was the girl she had been picturing. When they asked if she would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ she said "Sure, I love Jesus"! They weren't able to teach her till I joined them but now we have taught her twice-ish and she is totally on FIRE! We Committed her to baptism and she totally accepted and pretty soon we are going to put a date with her that she can prepare for.

Next we have Joseph. He is an old investigator of the sisters but they dropped him because he would never come to church or keep commitments and they had been teaching him for about a month. But then the week they dropped him on of the members who had visited Jose with them went to visit him and talked to him for an hour and a half and convinced him to come to church on Sunday!!! through a long and eventful string of happenstances He came to church! he has been twice now, he is being baptized the 23 and wishes he could be baptized sooner, and he is going to the temple August 6th to do baptisms for the dead for his father and brothers. Joseph is awesome we meet with him everyday!

The one investigator I am really worried about is Maria....[personal info].... 

Sorry I didn't really write last week we went in to Boston and had a blast but didn't really had time for anything else. I love you guys!The work is good and the church is true!

Love Sis Lambert

A Little Wrinkle in Mission Time

At Leadership Council

Hi Everyone,

This is just a note to let you know that Lydia's wrist which has been hurting is actually broken.  She is coming home tomorrow for surgery including a bone graft and pins.  We hope that after everything is on course she'll be back in Mexico soon!  Thanks for your support!

Week 47: Fish Bellybuttons?

fish bellybuttons?

Hey guys I love you :)

 My new area is super awesome I love it! this week we found 11 new people to teach and we put fecha with 3 people the elders were already teaching. We have found some really nice open people here that could really go far. Now we just have to get them to church. I got sun burned where I forgot to put sun screen and super tan where I did put it. I feel like I can see my native american ancestry coming out :)

I feel like some of my favorite p-day activities include walking slowly, sitting down, and being able to lie on my bed and leisurely eat a banana--or being able to take the time to go buy ice cream if I want. You know, the simple things. life is just so go, go, GO! as a missionary sometimes. I feel like especially in this area there is always lots to do and we are always rushing to do it.

On a side note, we ate fish bellybuttons this week. Now I know what you are thinking ¨But Lydia fish don't have bellybuttons¨ That's what I thought but apparently in the fish called la lissa there are belly buttons on the inside of the fish so yah. It is not something I would eat again but I had to try it at least once.

You guys said I should tell you more stories about my teaching experiences but I don't really know what to say. We taught some really cool people this week but when I tried to write about it in my journal it just sounded stupid. :(

Also on skype you asked me what you guys should do to prepare the future missionaries back home and I said study Preach My Gospel. I think the best place to start would be in the 3 main lessons we teach. Just knowing really well the basics and where the scriptures are that correlate. Practice teaching each other in fhe. You wouldn't believe how many missionaries didn't know how Joseph Smith got the priesthood till the MTC. Another good place to study is chapter 6 attributes of Jesus Christ studying and working on anyone of those is sure to help. I love you guys :)

Hna Lambert